Xiaomi has launched the Mi Band 8 Pro in China – with a bigger screen and a hybrid fitness tracker/smartwatch design.
But there’s still no sign of the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 8 Global Edition, and we’re now seeing an unprecedented wait for the budget fitness tracker.
Let’s start off with the Mi Band 8 Pro. It follows the Mi Band 7 Pro closely, and packs a 1/74-inch AMOLED (up from 1.64-inch on last year’s model).
It also packs advanced features such as GPS, mobile payments (for China) and a revamped OS with new widgets, 150 sports modes and heart rate/SpO2 tracking.
The price is set to 399 yuan ($55).
We’ve seen a move towards larger fitness trackers that can ape smartwatch features, and the Mi Smart Band 8 Pro certainly follows that trend.
But where is the Mi Smart Band 8?
The company released that device way back in April 2023 in China, but there’s been no word on a global release. You can get the non-global version in other markets, but it's not ideal.
Looking back to previous years, there’s been a worldwide launch by June – but that’s come and gone.
Last year, Xiaomi launched its Mi Band 7 Pro in October, so it feels like that may happen this year.
But should Xiaomi opt not to launch its standard fitness tracker globally, it would be a huge statement about the state of the wearables market, and the end of an era.
We’ll be tracking the global availability of both the Mi Band 8 and Band 8 Pro, so watch this space.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.